You fell off your diet! So,now what!

It happens to us all, you fell off your diet in a big way yesterday, ate far too much and now you are wondering if you have blown it for good?

Well, the good news is that you need not worry, the pounds will not pile back on and you won't puff up like an inflating balloon. In fact, the chances are that you will not put weight back on as a result of one indiscretion.

Simply pick up where you left off and carry on with your diet as if nothing had happened and all will be fine. If you weigh yourself weekly then you might find that your weight loss is not quite so good but, again, don't worry, it is merely a glitch.

On the other hand, you might find that it has made little difference and this can be a danger. You might think that you can have a day off every week but doing this is a sure way to create a situation where you can't get back on the diet again.

Make no mistake about it, dieting is about denying yourself food and you are playing with some pretty powerful drives. Start bending the rules and it will not be long before the rules go out of the window and then you really will have blown it.

So what happens if it was a little worse than that? What happens if you had, not one day, but several days of pleasant but wicked eating and now feel guilty and want to go back to your diet. Have you blown it for good this time?

Again, the answer is probably, no. Do the same as above, get back on your diet as if nothing had happened. Most important, do not try to eat less, and in particular, do not 'punish' yourself for being wicked.

Eating less might have unexpected repercussions if your body senses that you are suddenly eating a lot less, it might go into starvation mode and stop you losing weight all together.

Just carry on as if nothing had happened and eat the food that you should eat in the quantities that you were eating on the diet.

You can try eating a few more vegetable based meals, if you like, and you should ensure that you are drinking enough water but, again, just carry on as if nothing had happened and all will be fine.

You can use this strategy (if it can be called a strategy) when circumstances dictate that you break your diet for a period such as special occasions and holidays.

Just approach these days with the view that you will eat normally and eat what you like without going overboard and that, at the end of the period, you will just go back on your diet without making any changes and without trying to eat less or punish yourself.

Doing this will usually allow you to weather the odd day or weekend of indulgence without it making too much difference, other than to have allowed you to enjoy yourself a little.

At the end of the week you might find that your weight loss falters but, again, this is to be expected so just ignore it, don't let it worry you but carry on as if nothing had happened and you will be back on track in no time.